After earlier playing for the Grecians on loan, Paul Tisdale was appointed manager of Exeter City in June 2006 and became the most successful boss in the club's history when he won back-to-back promotions ahead of taking City to 8th place in the third-tier. He was to manage Exeter City for twelve years before leaving in June 2018 to take charge of MK Dons.

As a player, Paul played for England Schools and started his professional career at Southampton where he only made a handful of appearances for the South Coast club's first-team. While at the Dell he also spent time on loan at Northampton Town and Huddersfield Town before joining Bristol City on a free transfer in 1997.

Paul’s first association with Exeter City occurred in December 1997 when he joined the club on loan and netted on his debut in a 3-0 win against Rochdale before playing a total of ten league games ahead of returning to Ashton Gate in February 1998. 

After leaving Bristol City later that year, he played a summer season for Helsinki-based side Finnpa prior to landing a one-year deal with Greek side Panionios where he took part in a run to the latter stages of the UEFA Cup. Paul was then handed a route into coaching thanks to a new programme at the University of Bath whilst prolonging his own playing career on a part-time basis at Yeovil Town. Later, when a back injury forced him to hang up his boots, he managed Team Bath - a club associated with the university - to four promotions in seven seasons and also took on the role of coach to the England Universities side which won the British Universities championship in 2006. 

Subsequently appointed as manager of Exeter City in June 2006, Paul led Exeter to the Conference play-off final at Wembley in his first season (losing to Morecambe 2-1) and again in 2007/08 this time steering the team back to the Football League following a 1-0 win against Cambridge United. He then guided the team to automatic promotion to League One in 2008/09 thus achieving back-to-back promotions as Exeter finished as runners-up. 

Having finished 8th in League One in 2010/11, City were relegated from League One in 2012 but not before Paul (then aged thirty-eight) famously appeared as a late substitute in City's final game of the 2010/11 season at Sheffield Wednesday fully thirteen years after his previous league appearance for Exeter.

City remained in League Two for the rest of Paul’s tenure at St James’ Park, a period that contained the disappointment of two unsuccessful play-off finals in 2017 and 2018. Eventually leaving St James Park for MK Dons in June 2018, Paul was at the Buckinghamshire club until November 2019 ahead of managing Bristol Rovers (November 2020 to February 2021) and Stevenage (November 2021 to March 2022) and taking up the position of Head of Football Operations at Celtic in October 2024.